Thursday, March 3, 2011

Wonder Wellies

Some years ago I purchased a pair of black Hunter Wellington boots on eBay. If you haven't priced Hunters lately, you'll know they retail for about $125. I got them for half that because they were already slightly blooming. Blooming is a sad phenomenon known among Wellie wearers. It's when a white residue begins appearing on the rubber of your boots. It's unsightly and you can't just wash it off. Very disconcerting. In fact, this is what my blooming Hunters looked like. :(

For quite some time, I had been researching ways to clean them. One girl even suggested olive oil. Yeah, that didn't work. Note to you: don't waste good olive oil on trying to clean your boots. Something I did think I could get behind was ArmorAll. I had heard of ArmorAll but really didn't know what it did. In case you are sometimes dim, like me, it cleans tires. Rubber tires. EUREKA! Heading to the automotive aisle at Target, I had no idea how much this would cost me. I also had no clue there were so many types of ArmorAll. At least 15, yo! I couldn't decide.

I settled not on ArmorAll but on this bottle of Wet'n Black Turtle wax. My reasons were two-fold. 1) The bottle was black and shiny like I wanted my boots to be, and 2) It was on clearance.

I had really high hopes that I would just spray on the Wet'n Black, wipe it off, and I would be able to see my smiling face in the toe of my wellies. That didn't quite happen. In fact, that didn't happen in the least. I sprayed and wiped. And wipe wipe wiped. And Sprayed and also wiped again. This wasn't light wiping either. I was literally dragging the blooming residue off the boots. Hours later, yes hours -- though not consecutively -- I had the shiny wellies I dreamed of!!